Pioneer's Biggest Bargain?

Every time I walk past the barrels of broken glass in front of the Parkside Avenue Pioneer Supermarket I can't decide whether to laugh or cry.

New condos planned for Parade Grounds

The Brooklyn Eagle reports on a new 23-unit condominium building near the Parade Grounds (south side of Prospect Park):

The building at 34 Crooke Ave., between Parade Place and St. Paul’s Place, will have luxury condos with high-end appliances and finishes, according to Gilad. Prices will range from $339,000 to $525,000... building amenities will include a contemporary-looking lounge area complete with Wi-Fi and a cappuccino machine, private outdoor spaces and a common roofdeck with showers and views of Prospect Park, onsite parking, a gym and a virtual doorman.

Ready for the bad news? The building is being designed by the notorious Scarano Architects (headed by Robert Scarano), known for breaking building codes, cheating zoning laws and endangering workers. Also, those who care about contextual design will be sadly disappointed. As developer Boaz Gilad bragged to the Brooklyn Eagle, the condos "will stand apart from the pre-war apartment buildings that have dominated the area..."

Sigh.

(Thanks, Mike Hansen!) 

Flatbush - Caton Vendors Market Kicks Out Food Stalls

What does the City have against independent food stalls? First, they go after the self-sustaining and (by all accounts, awesome) Red Hook food vendors. Now, following a renovation of the Flatbush - Caton Vendors Market, the food vendors have been kicked out of there also. The City claims that the food vendors have been attracting vermin. The food stalls have been a part of the market from the early days when it was housed in a vacant lot, and then moved inside when the market got a roof.

The food vendors have a defender in Councilman Mathieu Eugene, who is trying to get the vendors allowed back inside. I'm glad to see him weighing in on something local, and on behalf of his least powerful constituents. The manager of the market is also looking into getting heated tents for the food vendors which would, theoretically, both give the vendors a place to sell their wares and keep the rats out of the indoor market.

I admit that I've never been to the Flatbush - Caton Vendors Market - but that's because I didn't realize that they had people selling roasted corn! As of today, instead of merely not shopping at the market, I am protesting the exclusion of the vendors. But if they let them back, I promise to walk down to Caton Street, grab myself a cob and wander the stalls.

Veggie Castle is closing

Veggie Castle—the vegetarian joint on Church housed in a former White Castle building—is closing. According to the New York Press article, the restaurant's 10-year lease is up and renewing isn't an option. The landlord plans to demo the building and develop a new commercial space there.

The place had a great reputation; New York magazine called it one of the five best vegetarian restaurants in Brooklyn. Still, this flexitarian won't be shedding any tears. I ate at Veggie Castle three times and, while the food was indeed very tasty, it certainly wasn't worth the explosive diarrhea I suffered after two of those three meals. (For what it's worth, Charles, normally the gassy one, shared two of those meals and had no problem...)

If Veggie Castle never made you violently ill and you need your jerk tofu fix, you can still go to their other location in South Richmond Hill.

(Via New York Press)

Rathole of the month: 205 Parkside

Prospect Lefferts Gardens won't have truly arrived until the buildings next to our major subway stations aren't shellshocked rat holes. Fortunately, as previously reported, plans to develop the blighted lot next to the Prospect Park station are in progress. So I thought I'd check in on that building's twin, 205 Parkside, the sprawling eyesore near the Parkside Q station.

The last we heard, the owners of 205 Parkside, Moses Fried and Bernice Fried, were seeking to convert their eyesore into an "apartment hotel," or, as word on the street put it, "whore house."  (Mr. Fried and his Prince Hotel Group are also owners of the "Hooker Hotel.") But, as reported by Planet PLG, when Fried's gang applied for a variance to break current zoning regulations in July 2006, the request was denied. And so the shuttered building stayed shuttered, and has remained so to date.

I called Blaise Parascandola, the attorney representing Fried on the building plans, and the news is: nothing. According to Parascandola, nothing is happening with 205 Parkside. Mr. Fried is still "reviewing his options."

That may be, but in the mean time, onlookers have told us they've occasionally seen lights on in the upper floors of the building. Squatters, perhaps?

B train hours to be extended

The MTA (no doubt trying to help justify the fare hike) just announced a few transit improvements scheduled for 2008, most notably, B train hours will be extended on weekdays. Other plans in the pipeline include increased service on the 1, 4, 5, G, L, and 7 trains. Unfortunately, no mention was made of an earlier MTA proposal to add 33 more buses to the B41 route, which goes up and Flatbush. Time will tell.

(via Mobilizing the Region)

PLG is MIA (again)

We need to start collecting maps of Brooklyn that leave off Prospect Lefferts Gardens. Here's one sent to us by Cole James. Designed as part of series of city neighborhoods, it's a hand-screened poster by Ork, currently sold out. (Every one in East Flatbush must have bought a copy.)

Lots of small neighborhoods are left off of this and/or inaccurately labeled, so I don't know that our slight is a great injustice, in the scheme of things. Serves us right for having such a cumbersome, fuzzy name.

(Thanks, Cole!)

Conflagration at Culpepper's?

Latest news from Nostrand Ave: it appears that a (hopefully minor) fire occurred some time before Saturday night at this neighborhood institution. It's hard to tell the extent of the damage, but the storefront has been boarded up and the awning is in tatters. We sincerely hope most importantly that nobody was hurt, and secondly that Culpepper's reopens for business soon. I'm not sure how long I can make it without their delicious flying fish and macaroni pie. But in the meantime, I'll be heading over to Hammond's Jerk Center for nourishment.

As an aside, a sign on the building that houses Culpepper's notes that the building is for sale (realtor: Marcus & Millichap, ask $1.15M). Advertisement via Property Shark notes that the "Storefront (would be a) Great Candidate for Franchise Retailer ie. Dunkin Donuts, Subway". While I don't think this is related to the fire, I certainly hope that the new owners have the good sense to greet Culpepper's with open arms.

Reclaimed Home notices PLG

It looks like someone else has discovered our little patch of heaven: Reclaimed Home has a nice little writeup about PLG today along with a couple of local real estate listings. I first saw Reclaimed Home when they pointed to our post about stripping brownstone woodwork a few weeks ago. Aside from having the good taste to appreciate Prospect Lefferts Gardens, the blog is a good resource for green design.

Thanks for the visit, Reclaimed Home. Y'all come back now, ya hear?

Bathroom renovation ideas, sources

This is what our bathroom looked like for about 9 months, pre-renovation

When people say that the most important rooms of any house are the kitchen and bathroom, I have no idea what they're talking about. The kitchen, sure. But what are these people doing with all that time in the bathroom?

Nevermind. My point is that our bathrooms are small (5' x 8'), but who cares. We're not making babies in them, working out in them, or using them to store heavy appliances. All we want in a bathroom is a well-designed, functional space that serves its purpose.

When we bought our house, all 3 bathrooms needed new shower walls and new tile. The one I'm going to focus on here is on our parlor floor. We had initially planned to merely regrout the tile, but upon sawing off the old grout we discovered the entire wall was shot. So the first thing we did was removed the glass shower walls and demo'd the tile. Doing your own demo is probably the easiest way to save money. One itemized quote I got from a contractor charged $2,500 for work that took me 3 hours! Just make sure you wear gloves and a dust mask (I like 3M's N100 respirator). We had drywall behind the tile and that stuff is nasty when it breaks up.

SHOWER WALLS, TILE, AND SHOWER BASE. Our contractor, Alex Seaton, built the shower walls and base. Alex is a regular on the John Bridge tile forums (which is how I found him) and used the Kerdi system for the foundation (which all of tile pros on the forum seem to agree is the best, most waterproof method). After several days of tile shopping, I selected off-white subway tile for the walls and 1" hex for the floor. I got the subway tile at Home Despot and the 1" hex at Bergen Tile (gmap). The stuff was super cheap but you'd never know it; it looks awesome. Glass tile, my original choice, turned out to be insanely expensive and more difficult to install. After visiting a friend's apartment whose glass tiles were falling out all over the place, I knew for sure we made the right choice. Alex also did the plumbing. He rules but, alas, he hates working in Brooklyn. (I'm sure he'd be up for jobs in Long Island or Queens, though.)

BATHROOM WALLS. On the rest of the bathroom walls, Alex put in wainscotting with a little chair rail. That took about a day. I painted it, along with the rest of the walls. Looks great. Visitors usually think the wainscotting is original to the house.

FIXTURES. I chose fixtures by Watermark Designs, a Brooklyn-based company (though they don't have a retail store; I ordered online). They're more expensive than what you'll find in a big box store (about $350-$450 per faucet setting) but worth the cost if you want old-fashioned, two-handed shower fixtures instead of a modern dial. (The two-handed fixtures are hard to find in New York because they're no longer code.)

Everything is highly customizable. The various designs come in every finish imaginable. You also have a dizzying choice of handle trim. Mine are Stratford 321 in pewter. When I didn't like the white-tipped middle piece (that opens and closes the drain) for the sink, I was able to order a solid pewter version for about $20.

SHOWER DOORS. After a month of painful experimentation, we hired ABC Shower and Glass to build and install custom glass shower doors. For $2,000, this was a lot more expensive than using a pre-made shower kit, our original plan. But those shower kits just don't work in old houses: the two we tried were poorly designed (one didn't have a lip) and were likely to cause water damage. Also, the walls in our bathroom are, like most old house walls, slightly skewed so that standard-cut glass won't fit right. We were very happy with ABC. Their customer service is excellent and the job comes with a lifetime guarantee for parts and labor. They did make a mistake on the install: the door didn't stay shut. I called and they promptly came out and fixed it. I called several other shower door places and ABC is priced competitively.

TOILET: American Standard "Champion." We chose this one because it topped Consumer Reports' list for flushability, easy cleaning, and efficiency. It's not the most beautiful toilet in the world but, hey, it's a toilet.  I'll never understand why so many yuppies buy Kohler. Surely any gain in aesthetics is lost when your poop won't stay down.